This morning we all ate breakfasts in our respected apartments and hauled ourselves onto the bus for an early day into the Dingle peninsula. It was a very similarly scenic day to yesterday. For our first stop, we spent a brief 15 minutes in the actual town of Dingle. This quaint beach town is known to the ILE for Fungi the dolphin tours and deep fried Mars Bars. The group that won the drama presentation was awarded with the special boat tour to drive alongside Fungi. He has bee alive and swimming in the bay of Dingle for nearly 45 years. This first encounter with Dingle was a quick one, as we just stopped long enough to grab the tour tickets and a few of the kids were able to snag the, sinfully delicious, fried Mars Bar.
We loaded back onto the bus and drove along a treacherously steep and windy road along the Dingle Peninsula coast. It is an unspoken rule to local Irishmen that this loop is to be driven clockwise, as it is only wide enough for one car at a time. However, it is technically a two-way road and we came across a few uninformed tourist driving the wrong direction. To their misfortune, they had to reverse down the mountain to let us through.
We finally reached the peak of the peninsula, and we stopped at a gorgeous sandy beach for lunch and a swim. The weather was rather cloudy and a bit windy, but the students did not let that stop them. All but a few, braved the cold Atlantic waters and had fun doing it!
Cold, happy, and covered in sand, we loaded the bus and headed back to Dingle. Some of the group set out to see Fungi while the rest of the students had free time to explore the colorful beach town and eat Murphy’s famous ice cream!
When we assembled back together at 4:00 PM, we headed back to our Killarny accommodations. Tonight is our last night in these apartments and tomorrow we will be off to Galway, the last portion of our trip… It is safe to say that we all feel that the trip is going by way too fast.
Until next time!
